SOEmote is finally ready to go live on August 7! After showing the feature at E3 in Los Angeles earlier this year and getting a lot of interest and feedback, we opted to spend more time developing it to make it fit easily into the game experience so it felt fun, natural, and easy. You will find the SOEmote listed in the main EQII menu in game, as well as in the game Options. Some features we added are:

Auto-Enable SOEmote with Webcam. To start with, we wanted the feature to be easy to use. If you have a camera set up, SOEmote will automatically send you a message to enable the feature and options when you log in. After that, when you log in with a webcam, you will be reminded that the feature is active.

SOEmote Group Window: Included by default if you set up SOEmote, you can easily watch group members' faces next to their names in the user interface.

Mini-Chat Bar Additions: We integrated SOEmote buttons into the mini-voice chat bar under the chat window for easy use and access.

Mirror Me: As we've been using SOEmote in the studio a lot, we wanted a quick and intuitive way to be able to see ourselves (because it's fun) and also to ensure SOEmote is calibrated without having to use the large set-up window view. With this addition, you see a small version of yourself with a quick Calibration button to set the default facial tracking position for those times when you leave your PC and return. TIP: When calibrating, make sure your own face is in a neutral position with no smile, eyes open and no expression. You get the best results this way!

Voice Chat/SOEmote Options: We took some time to work on the usability of the existing voice chat controls as we integrated the SOEmote options. It seemed natural for us to pair voice chat and SOEmote options together.

Local Proximity Chat in Guild Halls and Houses. With SOEmote or Voice Chat activated you'll have the option to join a Local Channel so you can listen and talk based on your location just like walking and chatting into a room in real life.

Voice Fonts. We added a selection of voice fonts for male and female voices for you to experiment with in the main SOEmote set-up options. You will find the voice font selections in a drop-down list. We also added an option to record and play back your voice so you can hear how it sounds with a font.

FAQ. We wanted to add a fairly deep FAQ for SOEmote to help users with common questions. We can tell you now that if you are experiencing issues with tracking your facial movements, try increasing your lighting! And if that fails, you might want a better camera. Check out the FAQ and Tips at SOEmote.com/guide.

GENERAL

Casting bars on raid mobs should be a lot more reliable.

An Auto Attack timing window has been implemented into the default UI. You can enable / disable this feature under User Interface – Combat Bubbles.

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION

Plane of War x4 Raid

General Teku final fight – Timing has been extended on events that occur during the fight.

Withered Lands

Hexapola's adds should no longer spawn at level 110.

ABILITIES / ALTERNATE ADVANCMENT

General

Passive regenerating ward effects now start their protection at 0 when cast.

PVP UPDATES

Priest

Priest heals will now properly inherit PVP crit chance when in PVP combat.

The base amount of priest heals in PVP combat has been increased.

Scout

Scout Combat Art damage has been increased.

Warlock

Eternal Damnation now hits a maximum of 2 targets in PVP combat.

Sorcerer

Manashield now has a negative lethality component.

Conjuror

Fixed a bug where elemental blast was not following max PVP spell damage rules.

Elemental Blast now does less damage in PVP combat.

Mystic

The damage of Stampede has been reduced in PVP combat.

ITEMS

Removed duplicate stats from several PvP shields.

Reduced the DPS and Attack Speed on Boiled Red Dragon Scale Tunic to be more in line with similar breastplates.

The item "essence entanglement device" for the quest "Seeking Answers" will now show up as a bauble in the quest tracker.

BATTLEGROUNDS

Fixed a bug where the number of tokens displayed in the leaderboard would be incorrect. NOTE: The Number of tokens shown in the chat window and awarded to you has always been correct, just the display in the leaderboard was not.

Players are now unable to be affected by movement speed buffs while carrying the flag in Battlefield of Ganak.